OSO Salt Wagons - part two

The wagon design was scaled up from some 7mm salt wagons I had built over ten years ago and which were in turn based on a WHR narrow gauge wagon.

I used various thicknesses of plastic card to build the body with blue masking tape for the felt roof. The wagon bases are second hand HO-OO oil wagons which although they have slightly smaller wheels than proper this does not show up too much as most of the lower model is hidden.

Detailing was done with even more plastic card and plastic rod for the rivets. The brake levers were cut from a single piece of plastic card and slightly bent to fit the model.

I'll post detailed of how the two models were painted soon.

Tony

OSO Salt Wagons for the layout

Earlier this month Sue and I attended the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association exhibition in Burton Upon Trent where I exhibited both of my 1:27.7 (or 11mm = 1 foot) layouts OSO Salt and The Yellow Pelican Mining Co.

Prior to the exhibition, I built two salt wagons for the OSO Salt diorama and over the next couple of days I will give details of how they were built, painted and weathered.

The image above shows the two finished salt wagons on the layout being pulled by the scratch built Kerr Stuart 4412 modelled to represent an 18 inch narrow gauge engine.

Tony

Fathers Day 2023

Holly came around for lunch yesterday and brought me this Fathers Day present - a desk mounted disc sander.  

Iv'e often looked at buying myself a compact disc sander for detailed modelling, but never got around to it. I now have my small detail sander and will be using it for terrain building and sanding plastic card for scratch building.

Thank you and lots of love to Holly.

Also thank you to Gary, Beckie and the boys for my book and top.

Tony

7mm Narrow Gauge Association Annual Exhibition

Yesterday, Sue and I exhibited both Yellow Pelican and OSO Salt layouts at the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association exhibition in Burton upon Trent. The first two images show the Yellow Pelican and OSO Salt narrow gauge railway layouts all set up for display in the DOVE hall while the rest of the images show some of the fantastic layouts that were on show.

We had a great day discussing all thing narrow gauge and making new friends as well as rekindling some old acquaintances. Although it was a long day - it didn't seem like that as we both had a fun time and I even managed to spend some 'pocket money' and pick up even more books and magazines.

One of my favourite layouts was this small shunting puzzle (below) which I thought was delightful, however my other favorite showing a dam building layout in Yorkshire is not shown due to the images being corrupted on my digital camera. I'm sorry for this mishap as I would have liked to have included images of this beautiful layout here. 

Tony

Ruston Proctor and Hornsby Akroyd Oil-Engined Locomotives

Earlier today Sue and I decided to drive across to Bewdley and have a walk along the river. On the way back I stopped off at the Severn Valley Railway and picked up a number of second hand magazines, but it was this small booklet that I consider as my best buy of the day.

Ruston Proctor and Hornsby Akroyd Oil-Engined Locomotives by Robin J. Parkinson and published by The Moseley Railway Trust in 2003 is a book I have been searching for for some time and I found it nestled amongst a number of pamphlets and booklets in one of the preservation wagons. At just £3.50 I thought it was a real steal.....

As a modeller of 18inch narrow gauge railway engines, the four oil fired locomotives built by Ruston, Proctor and Hornsby Akroyd for the Royal Gunpowder & Small Arms Factory, Waltham Abbey are some of my favourite prototypes. I already have some scale drawings of these engines, but this booklet includes some of the best blueprints of these engines that I have even seen. I no longer have any excuse for not building a model in 1:27.7 (or 11mm = 1 foot).

Along with this publication I am still looking for Railways of Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey and a Narrow Gauge Railway Guide about the same subject.

For now I'll just enjoy this latest buy.

Tony

Minotaur Shrine for Typhon

The latest issue of Miniature Wargames - issue 483 from July 2023 features another tutorial written by me and showing how I built this Greek Mythology inspired piece of scatter terrain - a Minotaur Shrine. The main stone was built out of a piece of scrap blue foam with more foam used for the stones and decoration on the base. The Minotaur head was cut from a child's toy with clutter selected from my 'Bits Box'.

Painting was done with acrylics using simple grey paints, drybrushing and washes. The base was decorated with static grass and tufts after being varnished with matt varnish.

For more information, pick up the latest issue from W H Smiths.

Tony

Some amazing charity shop finds

It all started with a simple plan - we were going to drive to Stratford-upon-Avon around lunchtime and spend a couple of hours enjoying one of our favourite town centres before moving on to Leamington Spa, but that all changed when the main road between Droitwich and Alcester was closed (again) so it was over to plan B. Up the M5, across the M42 and then down the M40 so we could arrive in time to pick up our Grandsons from school and babysit until their parents came home from work.

Arriving early, we browsed the shops in Leamington where I saw  this book - How Airbrushes Work by Steven Leaby on a shelf in a charity shop. It was just £1.00 and I thought I'd have that. And as I walked over to pay for it.....

I spotted this second book also for a £1.00 - Painting and Finishing Scale Models by Paul Boyer. Before paying I thought, I wonder if there are any others?

And there was. This time - How to Build Plastic Aircraft Models by Roscoe Creed, another £1.00 bargain.

Three great reads and all for the cost of less than one new magazine.

But that wasn't all. As I was thinking, this must be my bargain/bargains of the day I spotted this plastic, tilting and locking turntable in a second charity shop. I have often thought I would like a turntable for my modelling and at just £6.00 I think this is my bargain buy of the day.

In the first image you can see it in its tilted form.

Th second image is it in the plain turntable mode.

The locking nuts can be removed and refitted in any of the 24 holes and adjusted with the screw threads.

This locking nut holds the turntable in place when you want it fixed.

And finally this is the label that was attached to the top - FOR MUG/CUP PAINTING.

The lady who served me asked what it was and how I was going to use it. I said for model making and promptly paid the £6.00 and couldn't wait to test it out back in my shed.

Since coming home, I have tried searching for more information, but as there are no markings or details printed on the turntable, the best I have been able to come up with is that there are a number of different cake decorating tilting and turning turntables about - some are quite expensive, but I have not been able to find a plastic cup painting turntable on the internet.

The turntable is extremely well engineered and the only modification I will make is to add a sheet of sticky-back plastic to the main face as I am a messy modeller and I would expect to get paint and/or DAS on the main surface when using it.

I'll report back once I have some 'hands-on' experience with the turntable but look forward to using it.

Tony

The Yellow Pelican Mining Co. - the first exhibition

Later this month I will be exhibiting the layout at the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association model railway exhibition in Burton-Upon-Trent, for full details see this link.

The exhibition takes place at the Burton Town Hall on Saturday 17th June.

This will be the first time the layout will have been exhibited and I have been busy making sure that everything works properly and giving the layout a good clean. In addition I have produced an album showing work-in-progress shots and some of the models or images that I have used for inspiration while constructing the buildings and rolling stock. The layout now has a PAT certificate and I have been building some cardboard ends to protect the layout during transit.

I will report back with images once I return.

Tony